Bakugan-Zombie Holocaust
by AquosKitty
Summary: After the events of the first season of Bakugan Battle Brawlers, on an alternate timeline, a zombie virus breaks out and spreads like wildfire. What will become of Runo, The Brawlers and those they met along their original journey? Rated T for Violence, Minor Coarse Language and Gore. Critique apprieciated!
1. Chapter 1

(Author's Notes: This story is written by a retarded 14 year old girl. Some plotlines may not make much sense, although reviews that help me with writing are encouraged. If you don't like violence, gore, no Bakugan in the story, the first season of Bakugan Battle Brawlers(Where everyone is rather young), Runo being the chosen protaganist and/or mild profane language, I'll advise you hit the back button and pick another story. If this is not you, continue onwards…)

_You'd never believe the night before Hell came pouring through into Earth was so peaceful._

Dan, Marucho and Alice were at my house for a sleepover party. My parents and I were preparing pizza and popcorn as we were going to watch a movie while my parents were out somewhere, probably at the movies. It was uneventful other than me slipping with the knife while cutting the ham and nicking the edge of my knuckle. It hurt a lot for a little while but I was fine after about 15 minutes.

Before we switched on the movie, we watched a quick news report. Because Marucho and Dan were talking too darn loudly, I only caught a few bits of the report. "Watch out" "Three hours west" "Destroy the head". They made no sense to me, so I just switched over to the movie. We were watching a comedy called "Car Door" which had a few games on the DVD we'd play for a little while. It was a long movie and Dan and Marucho, well, I can say nicely they were entertained and I can say sincerely they were laughing like complete psychos! But Alice…she was so quiet, I got worried.

"Are you alright Alice?" I asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. She looked up at me, surprised, before putting on a smile and giggling. I knew this was fake but I decided Alice was OK, but not too happy. She must have got more of the news report, and now I was concerned about it.

We finished the movie and played some of the games, which were just as funny as the movie. Such as this wish making one. The game would give us a ridiculous answer which made even Alice giggle a bit. The phone rang on the table, and Marucho walked over to answer it.

"Hello?" He answered, being as polite as possible.

"Marucho?! There's a turn of luck. Listen, I need to get to Bay City, fast."

"But I'm at Runo's house right now and her parents are out." Marucho covered the talking end of the phone and whispered "It's Shun."

"Damnit! Listen, I'll have to get over there soon." Before Marucho could ask why he needed to get to our place that quickly, the phone died. He looked at us confusedly. Immediately, Alice changed back to the television and sure enough, there was the news report I saw earlier.

"If you are two to three hours west of Bay City, our Evacuation teams suggest you leave. A new virus has hit this area turning whoever it catches into mindless cannibals. They are identifiable by their dark green skin and yellow eyes. If you see one of them, destroy the head to prevent your own infection. This disease is highly contagious. Please watch out."

I looked at Dan and he just started laughing.

"Of course this is some television hoax!" He blurted out.

"But then again, Dan, Shun did just call us and demanded that we go get him." Marucho replied, pushing up the rip of his glasses. Dan leant back.

"Shun's a tough guy, he'll live. Besides, the alert's 3 hours west of here. It'll take ages." I growled a bit under my breath. Dan seemed way too laid back for all this! I looked at the clock in the corner, it'd just gone midnight. Alice was staring at something out the window.

"What is that?" She asked, confusedly. It was clear from her tone she wasn't expecting an answer. I looked around outside, no-one was near. We were on the edge of the city. Alice turned away and tried to calm down the small argument between Dan and Marucho. I heard a ping noise and turned around just before the little thing Alice had been staring at through the window exploded, releasing a green gas just above Marucho's house. Well, it may not have been above but I couldn't tell from where we were. The news flickered to life again.

"I am on the scene where an alleged bomb just exploded. No-one appears to be hurt ye- What is that?! Matt look out!" The station cut to static, but not before we saw people infected by the virus…

"The same virus that took over near Shun's place!" Marucho yelled, the exact same thing I was thinking.

So now, there was a scene from a horror movie taking place right outside my house.

Only, this was no scene, nor a movie.

This was **REAL.**

_We had to get out._


	2. Chapter 2

(A.N: Critique is requested on this story. I'll be fine with either constructive or destructive. But please, tell me how I can improve. c: )

My thoughts turned to my parents. The movie theatre was in the middle of the city. I reached out for the phone, but Marucho cut me off before I could even touch it.

"Runo, the phone lines will be overwhelmed! It'll take too long for your call to make it through, especially if the infection has gotten to the phone line workers!" He blurted out, all at once.

"Uh, guys, you might want to take a look at what's happening outside. Y'know how you said to your parents you wanted to watch a horror movie rather than a comedy?" Dan asked me.

"Yes, why?"

"You can watch one if you look out the window." I took Dan up on this and peered out. Twenty meters away I saw the people the news report had described attacking normal civilians and even eating them. They often rose again as the green people, unless they were completely torn apart. They moved slowly until they found prey, in which they'd leap onto it. They appeared to be strong too.

"We need to get to my parent's second car!" I yelled, going to the kitchen to look for the keys.

"Why can't we stay here? We've got food and water." Dan asked.

"The infected will break in, Dan. Get out of your pyjamas and into your clothes. I'll get some food and drinks ready." Marucho replied, going in behind me and opening a cupboard as Dan ran to the bathroom. "Hey Runo, are these the keys you were…"

"Looking for? Yes! Thanks Marucho!" I said joyfully. "Alice, pack the sleeping bags that are out and a radio. Are you tired?"

"No." Alice replied. I could see she wasn't tired at all; her eyes were wide like she'd just had a triple espresso. The news report must've scared her, and scared her well.

"You're driving then. We'll take 4 hour shifts on driving."

"Can we drive? We're minors and we don't have any licenses!" Marucho replied.

"Hey, it's either disobey the law until this is all over, or we get eaten alive." I rushed over to the bathroom and hurriedly knocked on the door. "Dan, hurry up!"

"Almost done!" He replied. "Just need to get my shoes on!"

"You can do that in the car you loony!"

"Alright alright!" Dan came rushing out, the door crashing into me and knocking me over and onto the wooden floor. Marucho was half-packing food, half getting changed. After Dan helped me back up, I took Alice to the garage and showed her the extra car. There were 9 seats in total; two in the front, two in the middle, five in the back where the bags could go as well as any people we needed to rescue, such as Shun. I helped Alice throw the sleeping bags into the back and connected the radio, allowing her to get dressed. I jumped into the passenger seat and called out for Dan and Marucho to hurry up. Dan ran over and opened the garage door as quietly as he could as Marucho packed the food and drinks into the back of the car before jumping into one of the middle seats. Dan did the same to the opposite seat.

"You all buckled in?" Alice asked. Dan and Marucho said "Yeah." in unison and I buckled myself in quickly.

"Hang on!" Alice said, backing the car out. She seemed to have watched enough driving to know the basics. The noise of the engine would probably attract the infected, however, they would not likely catch us.

An hour passed and we were out of town. However, Alice seemed concerned about something.

"What's wrong Alice?" I asked.

"We're…um…almost out of fuel." She replied sheepishly.

"YOU MEAN TO TELL US THAT NEITHER OF YOU CHECKED BEFORE WE LEFT?!" Dan yelled from the back seat. I was just about ready to turn around and slap him.

"Not to worry much, there's a gas station not far from here. We can fill up the car a bit and maybe get something to eat." Alice replied, calmly. I'm surprised how well she handles these situations.

"We could go, Alice, but there could be people that are infected in the station. I suggest that we only get the fuel."

"Look, me and Runo will go into the station and get some food. If we do, the food Marucho packed will last longer." Dan said, not even asking me for my opinion.

"Hey, who said anything about me going in there?!" I replied.

"Relax, Runo. I'll have your back inside there so long as you have mine." Dan smirked.

"Oh, alright. But if an infected-"

"Let's just call them Zombies, alright? They're close enough to zombies and it's easier to say than infected."

"Fine, a Zombie, then. If a Zombie comes up, you're fighting it first."

"Deal." By then, Alice had parked. Everyone but Marucho jumped out the car door. Alice went to fill up the car while I and Dan walked inside the store for food. Although we should have expected this, a zombie was inside, looking for food as well.

In fact, they'd found it.

We saw a girl unrecognisable at this point backed up against the ice cream container. She looked tired but also in fear like she'd been handling the zombie for a few minutes now but was unsure of what to do, so she had now resorted to avoiding it. Dan was first to do something and had obviously already figured out the plan. He grabbed a lighter and some of the fluids and poured some of it over the Zombie's head and created a thin line to a safe distance. I grabbed onto the girl's shoulders, held her close and pulled her over so I'd hit the tiles instead of her. I could see the zombie, an adult male, running around like a human candle before burning to death. The girl got off of me and ran up to Dan, hugging him tightly.

"I knew you'd come to the rescue! You had to, Danny!" I sighed, but it was almost happy. Now the store was better lit thanks to Dan's little stunt, I could see silver hair and pink clothes.

"Nice to see you too, Julie." Dan said, smiling a little. I bit the back of my teeth a bit.

"Hi Julie." I replied after a little while. "We came in here to find food…but who was that man?"

"My guess is the dude who worked here. He's still wearing a uniform."

"Dan, go wait outside, there's one thing I need to do first." Dan reluctantly went outside to check on Alice and Marucho. With him gone, I turned back to Julie.

"I need to make sure you're not infected. I'm not comfortable with it, you're not comfortable with it, but I need you to strip to make sure you're not infected." I said as calmly as I could.

"Excuse me?! You mean, take my clothes off?!" Julie replied.

"Um…yes."

"No!"

"Julie, please!" I decided to sort-of lie a bit. "Dan would be heartbroken if you were to bite him."

"Well…Alright." Julie did as I had told her. There was no sign of any infection, the only cut had come from a shelf.

"You're clean. Put your clothes back on, pick some chocolates or something and let's go." I picked up some gumballs.

"They'll only make you hungrier, Runo. Try the Cherry Ripes." Julie picked up a few bottles of soft drink, juice and water. More water than anything else. I got some of the Cherry Ripes as she suggested as well as some of the sandwiches and walked back to the car.

"Look who we found!" I said happily, showing everyone Julie.

"That was a pretty lucky find, Runo! Especially since she isn't bitten or anything!" Marucho said, hanging his head out the window as Dan climbed back in.

"We should be full now." Alice said. "More than enough to find Shun and get to safety." I nodded in acknowledgement and jumped into the front seat, giving Alice a bottle of water and putting the rest of the drinks in the back with Julie who was buckling herself in and opening one of the muesli bars. Alice pulled away from the gas station and back onto the streets, heading towards the west.

Julie pulled out her cellphone and dialled to see if Shun would pick up and give us coordinates so we could find him and pick up. The lines would still be busy but not as busy as before, still, the phone rang for 30 seconds and Julie was losing hope.

"Hello?" A voice on the end of the phone said just before a minute had passed and the phone would have told us to try again later. Shun's voice, I could hear him from in the front. Julie handed the phone to Dan, knowing he and Shun were best friends.

"Shun! Where are you?" Dan said.

"I'm inside the women's clothing shop at that little shopping district about 2 hours' drive from my house." Dan smiled, we were only 40 minutes away from there.

"How long do you think you can hold out?"

"Before I'm found or before I'm ripped to shreds?"

"Er, found?"

"Maybe an hour. There's only one infected here and they've been locked in a basement inside the chemist's shop, but it might break out."

"OK. We'll be there as fast as possible." The phone went dead after that.

"Hey, now the phones are back, maybe we can-" I started, however, the radio interrupted me as it startled to life away from the music.

"Bay City has become almost entirely consumed by the virus. We have managed to group together a few survivors and they are headed towards the Cathedral a few hours south of the city. The names of the survivors will be named shortly." We continued to listen, see if our parents were among the survivors, but we heard nothing on them, although we heard Jenny, Jewls, Shuji and Akira's names. I hung my head on top of my forearms in anguish. I heard Dan unbuckle his seat belt to go and comfort Marucho, who had started weeping. Alice and Julie didn't seem too upset, they hadn't lost anyone yet, but I was still unsure of anything. Shun could still be saved, which was really my only optimism. Most of us stayed quiet, other than Marucho's crying, on the way to the shopping district.


	3. Chapter 3

(AN: Sorry for the lack of updates. The story at the time was the least of my priorities. CRITIQUE IS REQUESTED PLEASE I DON'T CARE IF YOU GIVE ME IDEAS ON HOW TO IMPROVE OR SAY THE VAST MAJORITY IS CRAP sorry for caps had to get point across. ;; )

The trip was uneventful until the district came into view. The phone jolted beside Dan with ringing and he put it up to his ear immediately after hitting the call button.

"Hello? Shun?" Dan asked.

"Dan, you know how I said about an hour until it broke out?" Shun's voice again.

"Yeah, why?"

"Well…It just broke out now."

After hearing that, I looked out onto the district and saw people running like crazy. One of them was a zombie and trying to bite the other people. When we were about 20 meters away, I saw it succeed.

"Alice, step on it!" I yelled. "God knows how long Shun will hold out!" Alice did as I told her and began to drive faster.

"Alright then, Shun, how long will you hold out?!"

"My guess? 5 minutes before being bitten and 10 before being ripped to shreds. So either come quickly or not at all!" Again, the phone went dead. However we were already in the shopping district by then.

"The women's clothing shop, he said!" Marucho yelled, unbuckling his seatbelt and standing between me and Alice. Alice jerked the car around, knocking Marucho into Dan. The women's shop was unmistakeable; it was next to the McDonalds and there was a zombie waddling around in front of it modelling a pink dress. The sight would have been funny if it wasn't so…completely not funny. The next thing we saw was its skull exploding, blood and brains flying everywhere. I heard Julie flinch a bit and mutter an "ew". We saw a metal rod attached to a hand. Shun's hand, to our relief.

"Julie, get the door open!" Dan yelled, while also going for the door. Alice honked the horn however Shun had already noticed us. He was yelling something but we couldn't hear him. Shun rolled his eyes and jumped into the now open door, closing it quickly behind him. Now I realised why he was yelling at us. There were 10 zombies running straight for the back of the car.

"We're good to go now! Let's get out while we can!" I yelled, Alice taking note and pushing the pedal forward and driving faster than I'd ever seen anyone drive. I heard something hit against the back, I assumed it was Shun. He had still been standing up, after all. I heard a seatbelt click and a disapproving sigh from Julie.

"Can't you put your seatbelt on?!" She yelled.

"And if the car gets stuffed, be stuck in the seat? Forget it." Shun replied.

"Are you bitten or anything?" I asked.

"No. I can handle a few infected for a few minutes." He turned disapprovingly towards the back window and looked out of it for a while. I decided to leave it at Shun's word-He could look out for himself after all.

We stopped the car after a while and waited for another radio report to come on. It took a long time and Shun agreed to be the next driver so Alice could get some sleep. After a while and a few muesli bars between everyone, another radio transmission finally stirred to life.

"The Cathedral in the previous report is no longer a safe haven for the Zombie Apocalypse survivors. A recently bitten young man made it past quarantine procedures and rendered the place useless as a safe haven. The youngest of the survivors and the only survivors of the Cathedral incident are heading to the Southport Cathedral as it is still a safe haven. It is an hour south of Bay City. I repeat, the Southport Cathedral is still a safe haven for survivors."

"The Southport Cathedral is about 2 hours southeast from where we are right now." Alice said after swallowing a bite of muesli.

"I guess that's where we're headed, then." Dan said, with the muesli still in his mouth. I turned away disgusted, but I guess it was better than seeing Dan across the floor with his intestines everywhere.

"It'll be nearly dawn when we get there. Then the zombies will burn and die, won't they?" Julie questioned.

"That's vampires, Julie." Marucho replied.

"Hey, you OK, Runo? You're quiet." Dan asked. I turned to face him and gave a smile. It was a fake smile, but Dan couldn't tell. Shun clambered into the driver's seat and everyone else climbed into other seats. I took Alice to the back and would help her get to sleep and stay asleep.

I think I must have fallen asleep too, because next thing I knew I was being shaken awake.

"Hey, hey Runo, wake up! We're here!" I awoke to see Alice's smile and an orange sky. I smiled back and undid my seatbelt. Everyone else must have been getting the bags out of the car, there were only a few left. I helped Alice get the last out of the car and saw two figures running down the path leading to the Cathedral. The figures were both female and more features showed as they got closer. Shoulder-length hair, what looked like dresses, kitten heels…And finally I recognised the figures as Jenny and Jewls.

"Heya!" Jenny's ever-so-annoying voice chided, however I was just glad that we had found other survivors.

"It's OK Margaret, they're our friends!" Jewls added, winking at Marucho. I could have sworn I saw him swoon a bit. The next thing I saw was a woman in a business suit coming down the path. I assumed she was Margaret. She looked about 35, even older with her blonde hair in a low bun.

"Hello." She said, looking at us. "I do believe dear Jenny and Jewls have introduced me to you. I am your caregiver for…well, until this Infection business dies down."

"Zombies, Margaret. They're zombies." Jewls corrected. Obviously they'd adopted the same term we had.

"Zombies, then. Until this dies down. Come with me." Margaret then turned around and walked back up the path. Jenny and Jewls took the smallest of our bags, we took 2 each and we followed Margaret up the path.

The Cathedral itself was huge. A huge steeple towered over the countryside; it had to be 10 stories high. It was made of tough stone and the windows were quite high up. The door itself was made of 3 to 5 inches of oak with huge brass rings on the door. Inside it was what I had expected; Wooden seats, the sign of the Cross, and more survivors.

"There's Akira, Nene and Shuji." I heard Dan say, and his finger pointed to them. They hadn't noticed us yet. We continued to look for other survivors we recognised but found none.

"I ask you turn your supplies over." Margaret said, snapping us away from our search. Dan, Marucho, Julie and Alice turned over their bags, however I spotted Shun perform a sleight-of-hand and keep some of his supplies. Suspecting he thought something was wrong, I tried to copy him and only just pulled it off. I saw Margaret look at me suspiciously before taking the rest of the supplies to the cupboard. I pulled Shun aside and through another door into a spare room which was unoccupied.

"Can you explain to me why you didn't turn over all your supplies?" I asked. Shun looked as if he was about to argue, however, he could tell that I knew he thought something was wrong.

"Margaret…she just seems too suspicious. There's something about her that seems…evil." Shun left afterwards, I realised so he wouldn't look suspicious himself. We needed this safe haven for now, so I followed him out.

"Your name is Runo Misaki?" I heard a now-familiar voice say. I turned around to see Margaret herself.

"Yeah, what do you want?" I replied.

"I want you to join the food canning team. Can you go now? I've asked Alice to do the same." I decided it'd be best to stay on Margaret's good side, even just for now. I nodded and made my way there after she told me where to go.


	4. Chapter 4

(AN: Writing critique is requested! Also I'm thinking of having a light romance later on in the story, what do you think?)

Alice and I tried talking, but it was drowned out by Jenny and Jewls performing 'The Zombie Holocaust Concert, Southport Cathedral Edition'. They weren't as bad at singing as they were at talking. But how they were still so full of energy even after 3 straight hours of singing I'll never know. By around dinner time I was exhausted from just canning various foods.

The table was huge and yet still had problems housing all of us. I was squished among an adult and Alice. It was obvious Dan and Shuji had spent the whole afternoon arguing as they came to the table glaring at each other like they were waiting for the other to own up to throwing Nene's hammer out the window. Jenny and Jewls squished Marucho, who unsurprisingly didn't seem to mind. Akira sat one side of Julie while Nene sat the other, nearly being pushed off the table, so she told ghost stories about how some people went into the Cathedral's crypt every night but never came back. Margaret sat at the head of the table and I could see her scowling at... Well, I couldn't tell but I think it was Nene. I couldn't see Shun anywhere. Strangely for how I felt, I didn't feel hungry at all. I had 2 or 3 mouthfuls of the soup that had been placed in china bowls in front of everyone before leaving the table.

I'd barely gone 5 steps down the hallway before I felt a hand grasp me by the shoulder and pull me backwards into a dark room. Their other hand closed over my mouth to stop me from screaming. I felt a foot kick me gently but firmly at the back of my knees and before I knew it I was on the ground. The figure flicked the wall, illuminating a flickering light and revealing Shun was my mystery attacker. I felt any motivation to shout fall away, but my anger and confusion didn't.

"What's going on, Shun?" I had to bite my back teeth to keep yelling at bay.

"I can tell you think the same of Margaret as I do." He replied, quite calmly. Anger turned to confusion and then realisation. We didn't need to can all that food; there was a fridge in the corner of the cathedral. "She isn't making us do these jobs because she needs them to be done. It's because she wants you to become tired and therefore can't interfere with her plans."

"What plans? What do you want me to do?" I started to stand back up.

"I am not asking you to do anything. I'm just going to investigate what Margaret's actually planning. You only have to come if you want to. Just be prepared for the worst." He walked back out to the church seats, where his sleeping bag had been set up. I felt exhausted, but Shun's words kept me awake. I walked out of the room before I felt another tap on the back. Instinctively I pushed my elbow backwards; right into Dan's nose.

"Ow!" His hand closed around his nose as I turned around. "What the hell did I do, Runo?!"

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it!" I replied. "I thought you were attacking me!"

"Why would I do that?!"

I realised I was being paranoid. I decided not to mention this to Dan though. He pushed his nose around a bit and wiped a bit of blood that was beginning to trickle from it.

"You're really hurt!" I put one arm around Dan's shoulders. "Hang on; I'll go ask for some medical supplies."

"Ah, I'll be alright in a couple of hours. I feel really tired though." Dan shrugged my arm off his shoulders and went to the sleeping bags. Everyone else seemed really tired, too. I even felt a little tired. Shun was the only one who didn't seem tired at all. He was also the only one not present at dinner. He pretended to go to sleep; I could see his eyes were slightly open.

"Runo," I heard Margaret chide. "You should sleep." I turned around and smiled at her. It was again, one of my fake smiles.

"OK Margaret." I said, going to my sleeping bag. I took most of my clothes off there as it felt hot inside the cathedral. It took a while to climb into it, but after a while I fell asleep.

I was awoken by Shun's hands violently shaking me up and down.

"Wh-what?" I said drowsily.

"You wanted to see what I meant, didn't you?" Shun placed a hammer on my chest lightly.

"Yeah…" I clambered out of my sleeping bag and took the hammer. I felt a little embarrassed by the fact I was only wearing a pair of underwear and a bra. Shun had covered his eyes.

"Put something on first, Runo, anything." I picked up one of Alice's dresses and quickly shoved it on. It was a little big but I didn't care. I picked up the hammer and followed Shun.

We came to an opening that led underground. A crypt, I believed they were called. I could hear a female's voice. Margaret's voice. I heard a snarl beside me, followed by a quick acceleration to the floor with Shun's face lying on my back. A hooded figure 10 meters away turned around, illuminating Margaret's slightly aged face.

"Neither of you had enough soup…" She muttered. "You should be as drowsy as the rest of them." I saw an odd looking zombie next to her. It had an odd shaped mouth made from metal. The teeth were incredibly sharp.

"I see you're admiring my little pet, Ms Misaki." She stroked the side of his head. "Very soon, its true power will be unleashed." I saw 2 men on the walls, their skin going green. They were screaming warnings for us to get out and get everyone else out.

"I knew you were up to something!" Shun shouted, brandishing the hammer.

"Careful with the attitude, Mr Kasami, or I'll use you as the demonstration for my little pet's strength." Margaret giggled.

"Why are you doing this?!" I shouted in despair.

"The world's going to hell anyway, little Runo, may as well make it happen faster. This is for the benefit of the world." Margaret giggled again. I growled under my breath; however the next thing I knew was Margaret was sprawled across the floor with her ribcage making an awful cracking noise. A hammer bounced and hit her pet in the head, although not hard enough to kill it. Shun grasped ahold of my wrist before I could react and dragged me out of the crypt.

He closed the door as quickly as he could and packed up everyone's bags. I decided I was on wakeup-call duty. Unable to think of anything that would keep everyone calm but still alert, I just yelled the truth.

"MARGARET'S FEEDING SURVIVORS TO ZOMBIES DOWNSTAIRS!" I yelled, shaking some people awake; Alice, then Dan, then Marucho, then Julie, followed by the rest of the survivors. Shun focused on getting more of the other survivors awake after the bags were packed. The panic was not as bad as I expected; No-one was run over in the process of getting up and packing their bags. However, I noticed the crypt's door begin to open.

A good majority of the zombies we'd seen on the walls emerged into the candlelit cathedral and began to pick away the slowest of the survivors.

"Run!" I shouted, pointing for the doors. One of the survivors attempting to fight back fired a shotgun round into a column, missing the zombie he meant to hit by a long shot. The column crushed him and the zombie, but I could see the church crumbling around everywhere. The column was one of the crucial ones, now all the neighbouring columns were collapsing. I saw Marucho's foot ensnared under one of the columns with Marucho himself screaming in terror. I rushed to his aid and by the time I got there, Dan had also arrived to help. We rolled the crumbled column off his foot and Dan carried him out on his back. I looked around for any remaining survivors. I saw Jenny almost completely crushed by a column. I ran over, however before anything could be done, a section of ceiling fell straight onto her head, completely crushing it. The blood erupting from underneath nearly made me vomit and signalled she was now deceased, yet I couldn't stay anymore. I could hear Dan's voice calling for me to get out. I did as he said, trying to look for survivors. I found none, but I could have sworn I saw Shuji being attacked and torn apart by the metal mouthed zombie.

My breathing was still heavy and in shock after seeing what had happened at the cathedral, which was now a giant pile of Neo-gothic rubble.

"We nearly didn't make it!" Julie shouted, latching onto Dan's shoulders. I looked at Alice, who was also breathing heavily and had an injured Jewls around her shoulders. I decided this wasn't the time to mention Jenny's death. Nene was beside her brother, yet she barely seemed shaken by the impact. Maybe because she believed Shuji was still alive as well. I felt a tug at my skirt and looked down to see a crying Marucho. I knelt down and wrapped my arms around him. The other survivors had fled into the surrounding countryside.

"Now where do we go?" Alice questioned.

"No other places have been mentioned on the radio." Shun said, leaning against the car.

"Should we try to contact someone?" Dan asked.

"Sure, when we find someone to goddamn contact!" I yelled.

"Calm down Runo! Maybe we should keep listening to the radio." Julie suggested. "It's our best bet." She climbed into the driver's seat.

"Julie may be right but we can't just continue waiting here!" Jewls cried. "They'll swarm us!" Shun put his hand around Jewls' mouth.

"We may be swarmed, but the chances will be lower if you don't scream like crazy." He calmly told her before releasing her mouth.

"Hey, where's Shuji and Jenny?" Dan asked. Quickly, I went quiet. It seemed everyone had come to the same conclusion; As Jenny would have looked for Jewls and Shuji would have looked for his siblings, it was obvious that the crumbling cathedral or the zombies had claimed their lives. A long silence cascaded onto us.

"There's no time to grieve. I doubt that all those infected died inside." Shun said, breaking the silence.

"At least there's one less psycho in the world." I added, a bit too soon. Marucho whimperingly pointed over my shoulder at a rising figure. It was no surprise who it was. Or at least, who it used to be. The Margaret-Zombie lunged towards us. I felt Dan's hand close across my chest and heave me over onto the ground. Before I could recollect where Margaret was, I heard a gunshot go off. I got off of Dan and stood up. Margaret's head was gone, but her body showed there was no doubt what happened to her. We looked around but couldn't see anyone who could have fired the bullet.

"Did you want to come with us you three? We've got room." Marucho said as cheerfully as he could in this state of shock.

"I...guess." Jewls said.

"What she said." Akira said. Nene nodded in agreement. We made some room among the supplies for the extra three passengers, let Julie take the driver's seat and we left the cathedral. No words were exchanged, nor did we know where we were going. Well, at least not until the radio was brought to life with a report about an hour later.

"If you are still in the Bay City or Southport regions, please get yourselves out. There are safe points 5 hours north of these areas in Rathell. The Rathell West Shopping Centre and Rathwell Prison are still taking in survivors."

"I guess we're going to Rathell, then." Dan said. I sighed. I wondered if Akira or Nene had watched many horror movies, but decided not to ask. I decided to just talk to Alice for the duration of the trip.


	5. Chapter 5

Dan drove the car during the last hour of the drive. He kept glancing down at the fuel panel.

"Nearly out again?" I asked.

"Yeah. This thing isn't too fuel efficient Runo." Dan replied.

"We've been on the road with this tank for about 12 hours or so!"

"So? My dad's car could last 15 hours with that much fuel."

"Who cares?! This isn't your dad's car! If you don't like it you can get out of the drivers' seat and WALK to Rathell!"

"Just because I made a comment on how much fuel this thing takes to get us a few kilometres?!"

"Ever heard the phrase beggars can't be choosers?!"

"SHUT UP!" Shun screamed from the back. He had his hands clamped over his ears and I could see most of the others had done the same. Sheepishly, I turned back around and faced the window. I missed hearing Tigrerra saying something to one of us that one of us couldn't win the battle. At that moment, I saw a fuel station off in the distance.

"Over there." I pressed my finger up against the glass and showed where the station was. Dan glanced in that direction and nodded.

"OK. We'll fill up, get some more munchies and then continue to Rathell. Any questions?" Dan called. Jewls raised her hand, but Dan ignored her. "No questions? Good. Makes this crummy trip easier."

We stopped, but only 4 of us jumped out of the car; Dan and Shun to fill up the car, me and Julie to go inside for food. Julie had barely stepped inside the door when she screamed. The doors had made a noise and attracted the attention of a zombie. One of the late-night clerks, we concluded. His hair was in dreadlocks and he still appeared to be transforming. Julie clung to my right shoulder, making it difficult to both find a weapon and use it. I fumbled around and threw a flip-flop at its head, which did nothing. I didn't even see lighter fluid to perform the trick Dan had done back at the Bay City Petrol Station. However, just before it looked like we'd meet our ends, a gunshot was fired and the zombie slung to the ground in front of us. We saw a fingerless gloved hand holding a black pistol by the men's toilets. Both of us put our hands up as the figure came out of the darkness, lowering the handgun. Julie recognised his baseball-capped head the second he came out of the darkness and immediately rushed towards him excitedly.

"Heya Bakubabe." Billy said, welcoming Julie with open arms.

"Are you here alone?" I asked. I still wasn't sure about that pistol.

"Yeah. My bike broke down a few hundred metres back on the way to the Cathedral. I walked in here and the staff member seemed happy to have someone to talk to. He told me to go clean the toilets in case survivors showed up in search of supplies and when I came back out, he was clutching a bite wound. I decided to hide for a while and see if he'd go out elsewhere. Then you two came in." Billy explained, holding Julie close.

"I don't understand. Why wouldn't you shoot him and make a break for it?" Julie asked.

"That was my last bullet. Actually, it was the only bullet. You're lucky I didn't miss." Billy threw the pistol in the bin and I started to relax. "Not gonna be much use now. That's my story, so how'd you two get here?"

"It's a long story and we both don't even have the same one." I answered. "Well, not up until probably the half-way point."

"Eh, that's OK. I'll listen to what Julie has to say." Billy readjusted his cap. "Don't worry. I'm not bitten. You can check if you want."

"There is NO WAY I'm going to…" I started before Julie cut me off.

"I'll check, Runo. You just go get more supplies and see if we can take Billy along."

"Along? Where? Are you heading to a safe haven?" Billy removed his cap.

"Yeah. Alright, Julie, you go check Billy for bite marks and I'll ask Dan about taking Billy along." I said, heading outside. I'd need a good argument to convince Dan; If Billy couldn't come, Julie would be torn in decision.

"Hey, um, Dan…" I began. Dan looked at me and growled.

"What the hell took you so long, where's Julie and do you have any damn supplies?!" I put my hands up like he'd just brandished a pistol.

"No need to get prissy. The answer to the first two is the same and the answer to the last one is maybe."

"I can't have a 'Maybe' Runo, I need a yes or no! Are you ready to go or not?!"

"Dan, listen to me!"

"YOU listen to ME! Whatever the hell took you so long, I don't wanna hear it! Now get in the car so we can get to Rathell!"

I'd had it with Dan's attitude. I pushed him sideways into a concrete post. Dan had had enough of me, too. He kneed me in the stomach and punched me in the head and I felt the back of my head hit the car stepladder. I cried out in pain as Dan hit me in the head once more and a few minutes later felt a hand tug at my collar gently. Everything felt like it was in slow motion from that point on. I grasped basic yelling between Dan and Shun, Julie begging for the group to take Billy along, Marucho crying among all this… then I fell into darkness.

When I came to, I was lying on a mattress in some sort of store.

"You alright?" was the first thing I heard. I looked around before seeing Shun at the head of my bed.

"I…think…" I replied. "Where are we?"

"The Rathell Shopping Centre. They turned the mattress store into something like a hospital." A billion more questioned bubbled in my head, but a few surfaced.

"What happened to Dan? Are Julie and Billy alright? Is everyone else safe?"

"Dan was left at the petrol station. Billy and Julie shared a seat and tagged along, and yes, everyone is safe."

"We have to go back for him!" I stood up immediately, ignoring a headache that was gradually getting worse. "He may have treated me like a jerk, but…"

"It was Dan's choice to abandon the group." I frowned. That didn't sound like something Dan would do."

"Shun…" I began before groaning in pain. The headache was becoming too much for me to bear and continue standing up. "He wouldn't have abandoned the group…"

"I was hoping you'd miss that. After what he did to you, no-one could forgive him. We decided to leave him there." Shun folded his arms and looked away.

"We have to go back…" I began to sit back up again.

"Even with Dan's luck, he'd already be dead."

"We still have to…go back…he could be alive…" I dragged myself to my feet and analysed more surroundings. Injured people everywhere…I felt a hand push me firmly but gently back down.

"Calm down Runo. You're safe now."

"But…Dan…" I felt a rush of anger rise. "Dan's your best friend!"

"Runo, calm down!" But I'd had enough of being the little lamb in the paddock of devastation. I pushed his arm away and rushed towards the exit.

And then I discovered I had no idea where the exit was, nor where my car was.

I just ran in the direction of the exits and where it told me the carpark was. I recognised a few blurring faces as I ran. Julie and Billy's, Akira and Nene's and Marucho's. I rushed into the carpark and recognised my car immediately. I dashed towards it and jumped inside. I remembered having a pair of spare keys in the glove compartment, which I opened. To my relief, they were still there. I heard 2 sets of footsteps running my way, one considerably closer and one considerably faster. I heard the door in the back open and a pair of small feet wind their way into the front seat. I saw Marucho crawl into the seat beside me after the door closed. It didn't take a genius to realise the other footsteps belonged to Shun. I backed the car up and quickly found my way out of the carpark, hoping I didn't hit Shun on the way out.

"Where are you going, Runo?" Marucho asked.

"So it's propelled-self at car first, ask questions later?" I said, glancing at him for a moment. Marucho laughed guiltily. "We need to go find Dan."

"But Runo, he knocked you unconscious!"

"Not worth him getting killed by half the population! He deserves a huge smack on the face, that's for sure, but it's not worth leaving him as zombie bait. Will you check the GPS for the petrol station? Mine's not a fancy voice control one." I said, continuing to drive.

"About half an hour from here if you head down the highway."

"Looks like we're taking the highway then." I turned the car down an exit and kept going. Noticing the lack of people on the road, I decided to head a little over the speed limit. It wasn't until Marucho finally caught my attention and showed me why that would be a bad idea that I slowed back down. The trip was uneventful, but I found myself missing the trip when we arrived.

The whole place was a dump and the gun Billy had thrown away was on the ground a few feet from the wood stock. I noticed it wasn't stocked with wood, but was being used as a hiding spot by Dan…another look at the surroundings told me WHY he was hiding. There were 3 zombies in the parking lot, shambling aimlessly. I quickly drove the car towards the one that looked to be the biggest threat. His body was unhurt, but his head went down easily with a huge CRUNCH sound that attracted the other two. They stood up and rushed towards the car.

"Hold on Marucho." I said determinedly and hit the other two zombies with the car. I didn't hear any crunching noises, but it'd take ages for them to stand back up if the car was on top of them. I wound the window down and gestured for Dan to get in the car. Slowly, but surely, he did. I reversed the car, turned the steering wheel as far to the right as I could and quickly turned around and left.

"Thank goodness you're alright, Dan!" I cried towards the back, where Dan was now sitting. He didn't say anything and neither did Marucho. I took this as the cue to shut up and keep driving.

The trip back was as uneventful as the trip there. When we got back, right after we'd all gotten out of the car, I rushed up to Dan and, without truly realising it, kissed him full on the lips. He must've noticed, however, he just hugged me back. It wasn't until a few seconds later I realised what I'd done and I felt my face flush red.

"Hey you guys, you're back! And Dan's with you safe and sound! Here we all were, worried about you." I let go of Dan to see Julie, Alice and Billy rushing towards us. I hugged Alice tightly, missing her embrace. You may not know it, but Alice gives AMAZING hugs. Julie hugged Dan tightly out of excitement and having no-one else to truly hug, Billy gave Marucho a comfort hug. I couldn't help but realise Shun was missing. Marucho beat me to the next question.

"Hey, where's Shun?" Everyone looked around but didn't see him until he called out.

"And how do you know he's not infected?" He was standing in the maintenance stairwell, leaning against the railing.

"We've been driving for half an hour, Shun. If Dan was infected, don't you think he'd start showing signs now? His skin going sickly green, his behaviour growing aggressive, that sort of thing?" I replied. Shun shrugged. "Some take more time to show signs than others. I'll take him to the mens room and check for infections, OK? You go get more rest." Shun climbed over the railing and jumped down. I reluctantly walked back to the shops accompanied by Alice. The adrenaline was still going through my head…and I only just realised how much it truly hurt. Alice sat me down on a bench and gave me some Paracetamol for my head.

"How long have we been here for?" I asked.

"About 4 hours. It's around 6pm now." Alice replied. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." I bit my lip. "Besides, I attacked Dan first, not the other way around."

"True, but…"Alice stopped.

Our conversation was cut off by a female scream.


	6. Chapter 6

(A.N: Critique encouraged! Personally I don't think I'm doing well and I'd really appreciate some help!)

Alice and I had never run so fast in our life. We'd heard the scream from the female toilets. We'd crashed through at least 3 conversations between other survivors. When we'd ran inside, I saw Julie standing in front of a sink, clutching the sides tightly.

"Julie! What's wrong?!" I blurted out.

"There's, like, this icky headless lizard in the toilet and it is still squirming around!" She said, pointing to the stand that was open. Out of curiousity, I looked inside. The water had gone dark orange-red and there was certainly a lizard's body inside and it was indeed missing a head. The only description that didn't fit was now it had stopped moving.

"It's just a lizard, Julie." I said, giving her a slightly annoyed look. I heard Alice scream a split second before Billy burst into the room wielding a baseball bat. I put my hands up again and quickly moved to the sink next to Julie.

"Where is it?!" Billy yelled frantically.

"What?" Julie replied.

"You don't scream like that without seeing something freaky."

"Calm down, Billy. She saw a headless lizard in the toilet." I said. "The whole thing only started 3 days ago and I guess she's still getting used to the fact there are scarier things than bugs now." He looked annoyed, but dropped the issue and took Julie out of the toilets, to our relief.

I wasn't sticking my hand into a communal toilet under any circumstances, so I just flushed it and left quickly. Although a headless lizard was an odd sight to find, especially under the given circumstances.

Our trip back was quiet until Nene ran in front of us, playing tag with Jewls. For the first time in a while, I managed to sport a smile. Things were finally looking normal. I saw Dan and Shun come out of the boys toilets without any sign of infection.

"Hey Runo! Alice!" I heard Marucho call. He had found a pair of boy's swimwear and was playing in the fountain. "Get in!"

I giggled, looking for a girl's swimwear store of some sort. After a couple of seconds, I just gave up and took off my shoes and socks. The evening went on happily, without anyone knowing or even questioning what was happening on the other side of the shopping centre.

Eventually, we were all about ready to go to sleep, most of us climbing into sleeping bags or into the mattress store.

"Hey, anyone seen my brother?! Akira's been missing all afternoon." Nene pipped up just before she was going to sleep. She clambered out of her sleeping bag. Curious, I climbed out of mine too.

"No, but if you need to look for him I'm coming with you." I said. Nene shot me a dirty look.

"I don't need a dumb blue-haired girl to help me find my brother!" She replied. I bit my back teeth to keep yelling at bay.

"Hell's been unleashed on earth and this time, we can't rely on our Bakugan to help. We have to stick together."

"Yeah!" I heard Julie's voice shout from behind me. "You can count me and Billy in too."

"Oh come on!" Nene retorted. "One person's annoying enough, but one person and two lovebirds?! Give me a break!"

"Nene, please. Let's just go find your brother. The more who help, the quicker we can get back to sleep." Julie said, holding Nene's arm and kneeling down to her level. Nene quickly gave in and we started off down the hall with me going and getting a sledgehammer…just in case.

Nene called for her brother once we were far enough away from the rest of the group. Eventually, Julie and Billy joined in on the yelling. I stayed silent, as if it would help if the mall really wasn't safe. We saw something walk weakly out of the toilets once we had reached the other side, which Nene recognised immediately as her brother. But he'd been missing for a while, meaning he could have ran into anything…My fear was confirmed when Akira lifted his head and we could see the trademark green skin. Julie and Billy noticed too.

"Nene! Get away from him!" Billy yelled, to no avail. Nene looked our way out of curiosity before being pounced upon the boy who was once her older brother. I stood forward and bashed the sledgehammer into Akira's skull, trying desperately to get him off of her. I ended up crushing the zombified Akira's skull; And several of Nene's ribs. A blood-curtling scream escaped her throat before she succumbed to fate and stopped breathing. Billy took the hammer from my hand and raised it to strike at Nene's head.

"Are you crazy?!" Julie cried.

"The news report said that if someone's bitten and killed they will rise again, infected, almost immediately." Billy replied. Julie had no more arguments; it would no longer matter from here-on-in what happened. He raised the hammer again and brought it down on Nene's head. Before I could register both untimely deaths, I rushed towards the toilets, ready to throw up.

Eventually, the sights and up-chucked food were out of my system. However, Akira being a zombie probably meant that there were more… Julie put an arm around my shoulder and led me out of the toilets. She released me after that, but the second I'd taken a footstep on my own, I heard something crunch under my weight. I looked down to see a stale cracker. More to the point, the next thing I heard was the unmistakable screeching of a zombie.

"C'mon! Let's move!" Billy yelled, grasping hold of Julie's arm. I followed them as quickly as I could.

"Don't you have the sledgehammer or something?!" I yelled back.

"Left it back there!"

I sighed, looking back. There were now at least 10 of them chasing us now.

"Hurry!" I screamed. "We have to warn everyone else!"

"RUN FOR IT!" Julie screamed once we were in vocal range of everyone. Dan and Shun were fast to leave their sleeping bags, but Alice, Marucho and Jewls, not so much. I ran over to grasp hold of Marucho, Julie helped Alice and Billy attempted to help Jewls. I heard a cracking sound and looked to see the roof beginning to crumble as another sledgehammer hit a support beam.

"Billy, run!" Jewls yelled. He did as she asked as Jewls looked towards the ceiling. I heard whispering as the roof caved in and crushed her.

"Runo, what are you doing?! Run!" Marucho yelled beside me, which snapped me back to action. I picked Marucho up, situating him on my hip and rushed towards the exit. I heard cracking above me, but didn't stop running. 2 pieces of the ceiling scratched my legs open. I looked up curiously, a few steps from the exit, before seeing a piece of roof fall towards my head.

Next thing I knew, I'd woken up in some sort of bed somewhere. I looked around, but as usual didn't recognise the surroundings. But this felt more unusual, like I'd been in this building before, but not in this room. The door opened and I saw a girl walk in.

"Oh good, you're awake. Took you long enough." She called out. I shook my head to see if I could get more details, before I recognised her red clothes and voice.

"Chan Lee?" I said dazedly.

"Yep. You and Alice came in worse than any of us had ever seen you." She replied, placing something on the table beside me. "Of course, he wanted to tend to Alice."

"He?"

"That ceiling really did hit your head hard, huh?" She giggled a little. "Klaus wanted to tend to Alice. I got stuck with you."

Again, questions flooded my head.

"Is everyone OK? Where am I?" I felt a severe case of déjà vu. Unconscious, waking up somewhere new, it had happened in the mall before.

"I thought you might ask a bunch of questions." Chan sighed. "I'm not sure who was with you before you were knocked out, but Dan, you, Marucho, Julie, Shun, Alice and Billy arrived."

"How on Earth did I get to Germany unconscious when the plane lines are cut?!"

"Germany? You're still in the same country. It's one of the High Schools in Bay City. But that was an amusing joke."

_So that's why I recognised the building_. "B-but that was hit by one of the bombs, isn't it completely infested with the infected?!"

"It was, but birds leave the nest, and the virus left the city, leaving largely ruins behind."

"Are you and Klaus alone?"

"No way. At times like this, you want as many people to help as possible. Julio, Komba and Joe were with our survival group. They're still here if you need to talk to them or something." Chan stood up. "Your drink's getting warm. You might want to take it. If you have more questions, Klaus is in the next room with Alice." She left after that.

I looked down, seeing 3 desks holding a mattress. I took the drink and slipped off the desks, my legs still feeling woozy. I was glad I could even stand up for 5 seconds. I pushed my hand onto the desk and decided I'd probably feel better if I drank something. After that, now I could stand without falling over, I went as Chan had said into the next room. But I found Komba and Marucho inside instead.

"Hey Runo! You're awake!" Marucho beamed.

"Hey-ho!" I replied, walking inside.

"If you want answers, it'd be easier to just go ask Klaus or someone else." Komba retorted.

"That's… exactly what I was going to do." I slunk back outside.

"See you Runo!" Marucho called as I walked in the opposite direction.

I entered the other room to see Alice still out cold and Klaus sitting next to her. He didn't look up from Alice at all. I wondered whether I should leave and find Dan.

"You may sit down, Runo." Klaus said, gesturing for me to sit next to him. I did as he wanted me to.

"Is she alright?" I asked.

"She's alive, thank goodness, but still out cold. I don't know exactly what happened as I was obstructed in terms of view, but at the time I was pretty sure a pane of glass shattered on her head. I don't think I'd ever run so fast in my life." He had his hand around her wrist, looking content, occasionally frowning. Keeping an eye on her pulse.

"What time is it?"

"You've been here 68 hours. It is 10am."

"That's a long time to be out…Have you thought about waking Alice up early?"

"That's a risky move."

"In what way?"

"Alice is a strong girl and can wake up on her own when she's ready." He looked at me for the first time in the conversation. "You know her better than I do, but I still believe she still needs time to rest."

"I see." I stood up. "I think I'll go see who else is a survivor."

"Did Chan tell you about the group I'd brought together?"

"Yeah."

"It's just Dan's group and my group here. Others were afraid to return."

"Oh."

"You'd be best asking Dan what happened."

I nodded and made my way out, hoping for the best about Alice.

I decided to just see Marucho again, hoping whether he could answer my questions. 3 safe havens in a few days and we were right back where we started.

"Hey, you're awake!"

I turned around and smiled.

"Hey Dan!" I replied.

"It's good to see ya awake. You've been out for a while."

"Yeah, Klaus told me around 3 days.

"He said 6 to 8 hours; you must have heard 68 hours." Dan grinned.

"Oh." I rubbed the back of my neck nervously. "So…how long did it take you to get here?"

"7 hours. Maybe longer. That's around 13 hours at least."

"What's with everyone else?"

"Alice is still unconscious, however everyone else is fine." Dan put an arm around my shoulder. "Do you want to head to the gym to play tennis or something? Billy, Julie, Julio and Joe are already down there."

"I…I guess we could go." I replied. I still wasn't at my best, but I guessed a game wouldn't hurt.

"You're not leaving without me." We turned around to face Chan.

"You can come along if you like." I said.

"What's in it for me? This is a secure safe haven-"

"We're only heading to the gym. Besides, Joe's down there, if you missed that part." Dan said. I stifled back giggles as Chan's face turned rose-pink and she looked to the floor.

"Alright, I'm in." She muttered. I couldn't help laughing a little. I decided to enjoy this for as long as I could; something told me this safe haven wouldn't last too long.


	7. Chapter 7

(An: Sorry for not updating in YONKS. Been a little busy. I will try and update more often! Just a quick warning; the couple I decided to introduce is Yuri, so…I'm just warning you now if you're someone who doesn't approve of it [It's nothing too serious]. I'm getting some story tips from my English teacher currently so I'm reeeeeaaaaallllllllly hoping it's paying off!)

Life in the High School isn't so bad. It's been 2 weeks and other than the casual 5 to 10 zombies trying to slap open the gates, it had been rather peaceful, despite a few mishaps. The place is veryveryvery slowly falling apart. While playing baseball, Billy broke one of the windows with one of the balls. We've also learned to not let Chan and Joe take over for dinner, ever. They set the kitchen on fire twice and we ended up with burnt carrots and undercooked meat. Other than that, our small community seemed to be doing well, with seemed being the key word in that sentence.

"Runo, I REAAAAALLY need to go!" Dan begged, trying to strain himself down the hallway.

"Dan, why?!" I replied.

"Can't tell you, but I have to go!"

"Why can't you tell me?! What happened to our friendship, Dan?!"

"I'll explain when I get back, I promise!" Dan took off after that, leaving me filled with anger and misery. I stomped my way down to the gym, found the punching bag, and began hitting it with all my might, kicking it a few times too and screaming. I was obviously making a load of noise, because I didn't even hear the door open and close behind me. I didn't even notice anything until another hand touched the bag.

"Haos handlers seem to get the worst tempers, huh?" I turned around to see Julio looking down at me. "I hit a bag with that much anger nearly daily."

"Oh. It's you, cueball." I sat down and cupped my jaw in my hands.

"Well, hello to you too."

I didn't move my head, but I continued to stare at Julio. "What do you want?"

"You were creating quite a ruckus in here. Might want to stay a little quieter. Zombies get attracted to noise, you know."

"I know that." I gave the bag a final swing to the side. "I think I'm feeling better, anyway." Julio seemed bored and simply left; with nothing to really do in the gym room, I left too to see a dodgeball game. Joe, Chan and Marucho were on one side and Klaus, Julie and Billy were on the other.

"Hey, Runo! Wanna join?" I heard Marucho pipe up. I managed a giggle, running over to his side. Predictably, Julio joined the other side. Komba seemed to be the judge of the game, which was a little odd to be honest. I had myself half-lost in the game, half-curious as to a question; where were Dan and Shun? I pushed the question to my 'Ask Later' list and continued throwing before I felt one of the balls hit me in the stomach with such force that I fell over clutching it.

"Whoa, Runo, you alright?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, fine. Catch a ball, will ya?" I joked, going to sit beside Komba on his right side. Joe managed to throw Klaus out, so he sat to Komba's left. I decided to take this as a chance to ask the question.

"Do you know what's happening with Shun and Dan? They've been sneaking off, like, all week."

Klaus lowered his voice, looking back to the game.

"Follow me." He said, standing up and leading me out of the gym and to a classroom; an old Home Economics classroom.

The soot on the walls from when Joe and Chan had set the kitchen on fire was still there. It had an odd smell to it, but I blamed it on the fabrics wardrobe. Klaus sat down on one of the student chairs and gestured for me to do the same.

"The school only has limited supplies, Runo. Dan and Shun have been helping us with retrieving more. Enough to sustain us without starvation or other problems taking ahold." Klaus explained.

"Isn't that a problem on its own? What if they don't make it back, or come back infected?" I replied.

"That's a risk we have to take, Runo. I check them for infection every time they come back-" I made a disgusted face at that comment. Klaus laughed. "As I was saying, I check them when they come back, and they are strong enough to take care of themselves."

"What happens if they come back infected?!"

"I'll cross that bridge when – or if – it arrives. This place isn't going to be safe forever, but it will have to do for now." Klaus looked at me and smiled. "Besides, they build High Schools like prisons."

I couldn't help but laugh at that comment. I stood up.

"Thank you for explaining it to me, Dan wouldn't say a word." I started to make my way towards the door.

"Dan isn't a gentleman like I am." Klaus replied, also standing up. "Let me guess. You're going to look for Alice?"

"Yeah, that's kinda what I was going for."

"She is in the library."

"That…was going to be my second guess, after the music room."

"Take care of yourself. I'm going to check on the others. Tell me if Dan and Shun come back."

"Sure thing." I left after that, pretty much sprinting to the library.

I found Alice curled up on a beanbag, obviously wrapped up inside the fantasy world of the book she was reading as it took me 3 tries to get her attention.

"Yes, Runo?" Alice said, putting a card I presumed was her bookmark inside the page and closing the book, putting it on the desk beside her.

"I just thought it'd be a good idea to see how you were." I replied.

"Don't worry! I'm alright, Runo."

"It's just…you seem to be holding up better than the rest of us."

"Oh…I didn't know that."

"I guess you just deal with stress better."

"Are you alright, Runo?"

"Yeah, just still a little upset."

"Maybe you just need a cuddle." Alice put her arms around me and I did the same around her. I guessed it was for the better.

"Thank you, Alice." I felt my eyes seem to soften up and blink water onto Alice's shoulder.

"Runo, there's no need to cry." Alice looked me in the eye. "I am here for you."

I looked briefly towards the door, seeing not a single person there, and then back at Alice. Alice leaned in closer, until her nose was an inch from my own. Next thing I knew, our lips had made a connection. I didn't do anything at first; It went against what my parents had told me, but it didn't feel wrong at all…I began to kiss her back, closing my eyes. I hugged Alice tighter, and she did the same to me. It may have only been a few seconds, but it felt like many hours had passed.

When it finally stopped, when we finally broke free of the kiss, both of us were blushing madly. Alice's face was nearly as red as her hair, and from the heat I could feel on my face, mine was the same.

"Alice…" I began. "Should we really be doing that…in the middle of a zombie apocalypse?" Alice didn't give me a reply. She just looked down, her face still red. "Wh-what I meant was…"

"I know what you meant." Alice cuddled her shoulder. "I…I just thought it would be…A taste of heaven in the middle of hell… I know I am a girl like you, but-"

"That part doesn't matter." I brushed some of my fringe out of my eye. "It's just…a zombie could have crashed through the window at any moment and killed both of us…" Alice began to look worse than how she did when I first arrived. I began to stand back up. "Um….I'll let you get back to your book."

"Runo, Klaus assured us that only a horde could bring down this place. Often, we just get a few trying to climb the barbed wire fence." Alice looked at me blankly.

"Um…" I sat back down. "I…guess you're right…"

I didn't have any time to say any more before Alice kissed me again. But this time, I knew how I would respond. I wrapped my arms around her again, her doing the same to me, and let her pin me down. It didn't feel wrong at all; besides, we were both still wearing our clothes. Nothing serious was happening and even if it was, there was barely a law to abide by anymore. I had no idea how much time had passed, but all I remember was snapping out of the romance with Alice to an enraged male voice.

"We leave for, like, 5 hours and you two decide it's OK to start dating behind our backs?!" Dan yelled.

I looked to the door and saw Dan and Shun standing at the door. Shun didn't look angry, just surprised, but Dan was obviously in complete utter anger.

"Calm down! Besides, we weren't even dating." I replied.

"Oh come on! That time, where we went to the movies?! Outside the mall, when you kissed me?!"

"That doesn't mean we were dating, Dan!"

"Oh, yes, the blue-haired girl is always right!"

"You knocked me out at the petrol station with no regrets!"

"Dan, Runo, calm down!" Alice cried.

"Can it, Alice!" Dan yelled.

"How can you even think of saying something so…so…unfriendly?!" I yelled back.

"Because this isn't McNice School! It's the middle of the zombie apocalypse! But nooo, you go and have makeout sessions behind my back with your best friend!"

"Maybe because she's a lot nicer than you are!"

Our argument was interrupted by Shun throwing 2 books to catch our attention.

"Will YOU TWO can it?! You're always arguing, back then, when Naga was going to take over Earth and Vestroia, and now, when Earth has gone to hell and is infested with the undead! You can't stop for 2 seconds! Dan, SO WHAT if Runo decided to make out with Alice?! Runo, SO WHAT if Dan knocked you out a long time ago?!" He yelled. We both stopped. It was pretty obvious we'd both done something to piss him off if he was acting out of character. Alice clung to my shoulders.

"Dan…What's wrong with me liking Alice as someone more than a friend?"

"Try the fact you're both girls."

"So? What's wrong with us both being girls?"

"Um…er…It's just…weird..." Dan replied.

"How so?"

"You're both…girls…um…" It was obvious Dan didn't have a good answer.

"Besides, wasn't Alice a male at some point when she turned into-" Shun began.

"Hey, look at the time!" I said. Alice would go into a fit if we said his name, I could feel it. "We best be finding out who's cooking dinner!"

"Hopefully not the other two lovebirds." Dan said.

"Which ones, Joe and Chan or Billy and Julie?" Shun asked.

"Duh, the ones that blew the kitchen to bits last time they got drawn out of the hat?" Dan joked. That was one of his good qualities; he could cool off his temper very quickly. I smiled, following him and Shun out of the library, Alice's arm around my neck. The only problem was, how would I explain our new relationship to Klaus? He protected Alice like a wolf protects its cubs, and I didn't believe he'd approve of our relationship…AT ALL, despite the apocalypse. I gently shrugged Alice's arm off; right now, it was probably best if I kept it a secret.


	8. Chapter 8

(AN: I got a lot of feedback regarding what couples I put into the story… I would put DanXShun in, but it would make little sense. Anyway, this is the Zombie Apocalypse, more focusing on the horror element than the coupling. Besides, I've never been a good Romance writer.)

The place we ate at was little more than the Performing Arts classroom with a table situated at it. I decided to use this time to try and talk to Klaus; Dan and Shun could probably need a helping hand sooner or later. Turns out he was part of the dinner preparation. Marucho and I would be cleaning up. Eventually it was time to go get our plates. The table seemed less crowded than usual for some reason. I saw an empty seat next to Klaus for once and took it, hearing someone stamp their foot behind me in anger. I looked up to see Chan sitting on the other side of Joe, who was on the other side. Oops.

"You do not usually sit here. What is the matter, Runo?" Klaus asked, keeping his voice down.

"There's nothing wrong, just an offer I want to make." I replied, doing the same.

"What is it?"

"I want to work with Dan and Shun collecting supplies for the Cathedral."

"Runo, their work is risky."

"Then why do they go?"

"We need supplies. Without food, water and fuel, we can't exactly survive."

"Then why can't I go with them?"

"You're just not ready."

"How would you know?"

"Runo, please. Try to understand. Your talents are more useful here."

"Oh come on. I'm about the same size as Dan anyway."

Klaus was visibly straining now to find an argument; I was certain I had him.

"Alright. They're doing a run to a local shop to see if there are any supplies left there. There are not many zombies. I'll let you go with them to see if you are better out there than in here."

I let a grin creep onto my face.

"Hey, Runo, why the grin and whispering? Dirty joke?" Dan said from the other side of the table. I laughed a little.

"What's a dirty joke?" Marucho asked. The meal went on as normal.

Later, I helped Marucho with the washing up. I hadn't talked to him in ages and decided it might have been best to catch up.

"So, what's up?" I asked. Marucho looked up and blinked at me.

"I've been spending a lot more time with Julie and Billy. I've managed to improve my aim with a baseball bat and my strength, but I fear my logic might be waning. I'm going to the library tomorrow to see if I find something interesting to read."

"I see."

"So, what's up with you?"

"Uhm…" I played out scenarios in my head. Telling him about either working with Dan and Shun to get supplies or my new relationship with Alice might put him on the defensive or even the 'spilling the beans'.

"I've been in the library a lot." I lied.

"Cool. You gonna be there tomorrow?"

"No…I'm going to be in the gym." Another lie. I didn't like doing this, but it was the only option.

"OK." At that moment, we realised we'd finished subconsciously. Marucho pulled out the plug and put it next to the tap, we took our gloves off and left.

I walked up the stairs to the LOTE classroom; Girl's room. Chan was already in there, half asleep, although still open-eyed. I decided it was probably better to let her sleep in peace rather than bug her for conversation. I got changed into my pyjamas and pulled my hair out of its pigtails. I pulled out an old phrasebook for French and flipped through a few musty pages before crawling into my sleeping bag. Julie walked in at that moment, already dressed for bed.

"Hey Julie." I said weakly.

"Hey Runo." She replied, obviously somehow still bouncing with energy. "So what was the big deal at the dinner table?"

"Um…"

"Runo, it's OK. I won't tell a soul."

"Can you save the girl chatter until morning?" Chan said, rolling the sleeping bag over her ears.

"Sorry." I said before reducing my voice to a whisper. "Dan and Shun have been going out for supplies and I asked Klaus if I could join them."

"You WHAT?!" Julie shrieked.

"Seriously, SHUT IT!" Chan called back.

"Chan's right. We should save this until morning." I said.

"No way, girl. We'll take the conversation outside, OK?" Julie said, holding her hand out. I took it and clambered out of my sleeping bag. Me and Julie walked out the door and Chan crawled into a cupboard to try and go to sleep.

"Why would you do something like that, Runo?!" Julie asked.

"I thought that they could use more help." I replied.

"You're putting your life on the line here. That's more than can be asked of anyone!"

"Dan and Shun have been fine and I trust them both. Dan just needs to work a little on his temper, that's all."

"It's not a matter of who you go with, what you're doing is nearly suicidal!"

"Then again, so is keeping Chan awake all night." It was obvious from Julie's facial expression my attempt at a joke had failed. "C'mon Julie! You've always had my back!"

"I know, but this is too much to ask of you!"

"It's only a small run to a largely deserted area of town."

"Runo…"

"Don't worry Julie, I'll be fine. My chances of survival will be higher if we go to bed earlier, too." This time, I provoked a small smile from Julie, and we both went back inside. Alice had gone to sleep during our conversation, so we climbed into our sleeping bags and fell asleep within minutes.

I awoke to the sound of someone yelling in my ear.

"You kept me up late last night; I get to wake you up early today. Get up, Runo!" It wasn't hard to identify the voice as belonging to Chan.

"Yeah yeah, gimme a minute." I said, shaking my head and crawling out of the bag. I quickly got dressed into something a little more athletic than what I usually wore and went down to breakfast, not realising my hair was still down nor having much care. Excitement and nervousness were retching through my mind and body.

How Joe could screw up something as simple as oatmeal was a mystery to all of us. Half of it was boiling hot and half was freezing cold, meaning we had to stir it together to get a reasonable temperature. Most of us thanked goodness that Marucho was also on Breakfast today. The meal went on regularly though before I noticed Klaus slip a note under my bowl. I slid it into my pocket and walked up to the sink, quickly washing my bowl out. I left the room and read the note.

_ Meet me in the Admin Room in 10 minutes. Tell only who you must._

Although the note said 10 minutes, I went there immediately. Thankfully, Alice was still at breakfast. She wouldn't worry too much if she didn't know. Apparently, Klaus was expecting me to be early, as Dan and Shun were already there.

"Runo? What are you doing here?!" Shun said, standing up so quickly the chair fell onto my foot. I grasped it and started hopping around.

"She's your new teammate." Klaus said from the other side of the hallway. "I expected a more gentleman-like reaction."

"Calm down Klaus. Yeesh. So why Runo?" Dan asked.

"She asked for this." Klaus replied.

"You threatened her?" Shun's eyes widened in shock.

"No! He literally means I asked for this, I asked him if I could go with you on this mission!" I said, quickly intervening.

"I told Runo where you were going and you already know. Be careful." Klaus explained.

"C'mon Runo." Dan called.

"What, no weapons?" I asked.

"You get melee weapons, but I don't possess guns if that's what you want." Klaus pointed to one of the cars outside. I followed Dan and Shun there.

"I dibs Shotgun!" Dan yelled, excitedly getting into the front passenger seat. I went over to unlock the gate as Shun climbed into the driver's seat. Shun started the car and drove up to the gates and I climbed into the back seat.

Various weapons were on the floor near my feet: Sledgehammers, boards of wood, baseball bats, basically whatever could be vaguely called a weapon. I picked up one of the metal baseball bats and gave it a bit of a wave to get the feel.

"Watch your head Runo!" Dan joked. I rolled my eyes.

"How far to the store?" I asked.

"Five minutes or so. Depends on what we run into." Shun replied. I didn't say anything else, nor did Shun or Dan. It was quiet for a while.

Shun may have said 5 minutes, but it felt like an hour to the store.

"OK, we need a plan." Shun said.

"Dan and I will go inside. You yell if you see anything coming, zombie or bandit." I replied.

"Well, thanks for volunteering me for the job, Runo." Dan said sarcastically, taking a sledgehammer from the back seat as Shun pulled up to the front of the store.

"Twenty minutes. If you're not back by then, you're walking back." Shun said coldly.

"Gotcha." Dan said, sliding out the door. I followed with the metal baseball bat in hand.

Dan tried the door, but it was obvious the owner had turned the door off. He raised the sledgehammer to get rid of one of the glass panes.

"Dan! Bad idea." I said, intervening by putting my hand against the hammer.

"How else are we going to break in?" Dan asked.

"Let's try a way that's not going to set off an alarm." I looked around before spotting something that could be used like a crowbar. I stuck it in the groove between the doors and tried to push the doors open, to no avail.

"Let me try, Runo." Dan also tried to push the door open. He wasn't much more successful.

"Maybe it'll work if we both push?" I stood next to him and pushed the crowbar at the same time as him. We still couldn't get the door open.

"Let's try going over the other side and leaning back as far as we can." Dan ducked under the bar and started pulling against it instead and I did the same. Eventually we heard the door strain and burst open, pushing us to the floor.

"Ow!" Dan said. I quickly stood back up and grabbed my baseball bat. "C'mon. Surely the shop's abandoned if it was THAT hard to get in."

"Wrong, Dan." I said, pointing inside. 2 zombies had been wandering around aimlessly, but now they were charging towards us. I readied the bat and Dan picked up his hammer. We both stood ready to swing, but while I immediately hit one of the zombies in the head, Dan hit his one in the knee. Its leg fell off and it fell to the floor, but it was going for my leg now. Thankfully, Dan dropped his hammer on its head just before I was bitten.

"Thanks." I said dryly.

"No problem. Stay alert, though. There's probably more inside."

We investigated the store and to our relief, there were no more zombies inside. We found some non-perishable food inside and quickly loaded one of those 'Green Bags'. I looked around for anything else of real use but only found a cardboard box of water bottles. I still thought they'd be useful, so I picked them up. The only problem was I had to swap with Dan because I could only carry the bottles about 15 metres. Dan wasn't going to get much further, maybe 50 metres, but it wasn't 50 metres to the car.

"Shun, we found something!" I called out.

"Only took you 15 minutes." He replied. Dan shook his head but I could see a small smirk. Shun jumped out of the car and helped us put the food and water in the back of the car. I looked back at the store, feeling proud of myself for being successful with my first mission.

"Hey Runo, you coming?" Dan called, snapping me back to reality. I giggled and climbed into the back seat.

When we arrived back, Julie rushed out to greet me and Dan pretty much as soon as we'd jumped out of the car.

"Thank goodness you're OK, you guys!" She cried, giving Dan a bear hug.

"Good to see you too, Julie." I replied somewhat aimlessly. Julie helped us unload the car.

"You told her?" Dan said, pulling the water bottles out the back of the car.

"I couldn't help it, Dan." I said back gingerly. "She's a friend, she should know."

"Do Marucho and Alice know?"

"Um…er…"

"Never mind." Dan and I carried the bottles together while Shun carried the food on his own. Julie seemed to run off after she was able to make sure we were OK. Although once I got to the storeroom, I felt a hand tap my shoulder. I turned around to see Klaus staring at me.

"Bring Dan and Marucho as well as yourself to the Admin Room. It's urgent." He disappeared like a ghost after that. Concerned, I tapped Dan on the shoulder.

"We need to go to the Gym. That's where Marucho said he'd be." I said.


	9. Chapter 9

Dan and I couldn't remember running as fast as we had to the library. When we arrived, we saw Marucho calmly lying upside-down on a beanbag, his head lost in a book. Dan had nearly lost his breath.

"Marucho!" I yelled.

"Yes, Runo?" Marucho replied.

"We've gotta… go. Like, now." Dan said.

"Wha-?! Did zombies break the defense or something?"

"No, Marucho, but we need to go." I said, reaching for his hand. I practically dragged Marucho out of the library, Dan following quickly behind.

We ran about the same speed back to the admin's office.

"Who…puts the…admin's…office…on the other…side of the…school…anyway?" Dan said.

"Don't…worry about that…now." I replied. Marucho opened the door and sat down at one of the chairs.

"I would say good afternoon, but the news I have isn't very good." Klaus said, turning around.

"Get to the point, will ya?" Dan said, aggression rising in his voice.

"Calm down, Daniel. The fact of the matter is, the infected won't wait forever for their lunch. All other strongholds in a 7 hour drive's radius have been invaded. It's not going to take them long before they burst through here. It'd be impossible to resist a full horde. The only option for when they arrive is to abandon the place. There is a bus near the gates, fully stocked with fuel. If we all make a run for that when the time comes, we will be able to stay together and survive." Klaus explained.

"So... why are you only telling us this?" I inquired.

"Well, Runo, I do not wish to be fully responsible for a panic. That'd move the infected's timetables up and no-one would get out alive. You may tell the others, but I won't take blame for a panic."

"That's crazy! It'd be your fault for telling us!" Dan yelled.

"No Dan, he has a point. He's given us the information so we can decide what we do with it. If we tell the others and they begin to panic, then it will be our fault." Marucho replied.

"Indeed, Marucho. Please, try to keep everyone calm." Klaus said. I took this as the cue to leave. Dan wandered off with Marucho to the gym.

"Hey, Marucho!" I yelled.

"Yes?" Marucho said, briefly turning around.

"Is Alice in the library?"

"I think she's in the art classroom, actually." Marucho turned around and continued on his way to the gym.

I found Alice in the art room with the water paints out and a piece of paper lying on the table. I walked closer, seeing white dots spread across a dark sheet of paper.

"The stars?" I asked. Alice jumped up immediately, startled. She turned to face me as I took a seat beside her.

"Oh…Runo. It's actually the snow. I…I miss it." Alice looked back down at the sheet of paper. "I suppose I need to add the ground."

"Are you alright?"

"Y-yes, Runo, I'm alright." Alice turned back to me. "Are you OK? You look like you have something on your mind."

"Hmm? Oh, it's nothing. Just a little tired."

"Runo, there's something else on your mind." Alice put her arm around my shoulder. "You can tell me."

I sighed. "Klaus said that this place wouldn't be safe for much longer."

"What do you mean?"

"He told me…He told me that the zombies would come in a huge horde. Keeping the stronghold up would be impossible. He said we'd have to flee as one big group."

"Well…it's not difficult to see his point. But the place is safe for now. Why can't we take consolidation in that?"

"Well… we don't know when they're going to start busting in. We need to be ready for when they arrive, and a place to go afterwards."

"There's an island about 8 hours' drive from here. It's not far from the mainland, only half an hour's boat ride, but it's our closest option."

"I guess it sounds like a plan…but…"

"I'm guessing no-one else knows but us?"

"Dan and Marucho know, too."

"I see." Alice paused for a moment. "Do you want to paint with me?"

"I guess. I don't see what harm it'd do." I pulled out another piece of paper and a paintbrush. I put the tip into the yellow paint and let myself run wild.

By the end, my page was an uncollected mess of yellow, pink and light blue. Alice had finished her painting too; but now it was clear it was a picture of the snow. I taped Alice's picture to the window and then taped mine up next to it.

"How long have you two been in here?" A voice called, causing me and Alice to turn around in surprise. We saw Shun standing at the door.

"No clue, actually." I replied.

"Well, whatever the case, you might want to head down to dinner. It's half past 6." Shun said, turning around and leaving as quickly as he'd arrived.

"I'm not really hungry." I said. "I guess I'll see you later, Alice?"

"I guess." Alice replied, walking out of the art classroom. I looked back at the window before deciding to head to the library.

I browsed wanderingly through books before pulling off a small one, just something to read for a little while. I'd barely made it past 10 pages when someone else walked into the library. I looked up to see Joe practically throw himself onto a beanbag.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm just tired." He replied, not properly looking at me. "But I can't go to sleep. Not yet, anyway. Chan's off doing the dishes with Dan, so I don't really have anyone to talk to."

"You can talk to me." I said, setting down the book entirely.

"About what?"

"I dunno. Whatever you want, I guess. Life before the outbreak?" It was quiet for a little while.

"... Well, I had a lot of free time on me, since I wasn't stowed away in a hospital. Chan came to visit me often, but I spent other spare time playing video games, playing a little sport; all the stuff most boys my age are interested in." He paused for a moment. "As well as computers."

"OK. Do you know what was happening when the infection broke out?"

"Not really, just my mum telling me to run for the car. I was sorta clueless on how to drive it, too. I was half asleep at the time. I guess I was lucky I didn't crash into anything. What were you doing?"

"I was watching a movie with Dan, Marucho and Alice. It hit my town nearly all at once. We may be the last survivors from that town. I don't know."

"I don't know either. Anyway, I don't think Dan and Chan could be much longer. I'm going to go check." With that, Joe stood up and left the library. I opened my book and began reading again for a little while, happy I'd acknowledged a few facts about Joe's life. Eventually, I'd finished the book, and I slid it back onto the shelf where it stood beforehand.

I left to go back to the LOTE classroom. The first thing I saw when I entered was Julie untying her hair.

"Hey, Julie." I said.

"Oh. Hey Runo." She replied, as blandly as I had. "Did Dan tell you about what Klaus said?"

"Klaus told me about it himself."

"Why wouldn't he tell me?!"

"Calm down Julie, he was worried about how you would react."

"Whatever. Either way, everyone knows now and we're all planning on leaving tomorrow morning. Apparently we're going to radio a rescue team and try to get out of here. I don't know how that's going to work; I guess we'll have to hope for the best."

"Oh. I didn't know Dan told everyone."

"You would have if you'd gone to dinner. How are you not hungry?"

"I dunno. I'm just not."

At that moment, we both heard a knock at the door. Shun again.

"Have either of you seen Alice?" He asked.

"Not since Dinner." Julie replied. I said nothing as my information was even more out-of-date than Julie's. Shun groaned and left the room again. Worriedly, I followed him.

"Alice?" Me and Shun both called at random intervals, hoping we'd eventually attract her attention and get a reply. Eventually, we heard her beginning to call back. We spent a few moments trying to figure out whether it was the science room or the music room. When we had figured it out, we rushed towards the source of Alice's voice, finding her inside the music room.

With a zombie.

Alice had thrown a few things at it, but now she'd run out of things to throw and there was no way she'd be able to tip the piano onto it. Before I could quite decide what to do next, Shun rushed in and kicked it in the back of the head, stunning it temporarily. The option then became obvious; Grab an instrument and bash its skull in. Picking up the nearest clarinet, that's precisely what I did.

"Alice!" I yelled, once I was sure the zombie was dead.

"Have you been bitten?!" Shun demanded.

"No, thankfully. We…we need to warn the others!" Alice said, shakily getting to her feet. The 3 of us left in a rush.

When we arrived, we hadn't needed to warn them. The hall looked like a scene out of a horror movie. There were several zombies crowded inside the hall, close to busting their way out. "There's nothing we can do here anymore. We need to get to the bus." Klaus said, gesturing to the space that was opposite us. Shun looked back briefly, before he ran towards the bus. I helped Alice along the same direction, seeing Klaus throw something from the corner of my eye. I didn't see exactly what. I saw the bus was nearly fully loaded with all the survivors. I didn't have time to count though; I slid into a seat with Alice right next to me. A moment later, Klaus ran onto the bus, and concluded what I couldn't.

"Where's Julio and Komba?!" He demanded. No-one knew, and I heard him curse under his breath.

"Well, that's gentleman-like language." Chan said from 2 seats ahead of us.

"This isn't the time for jokes, Chan!" Klaus replied.

"There's only a small chance of finding them. We can't help them anymore." Shun said.

"Are you crazy?! We can't just leave them behind, we just can't!" Marucho cried.

"Marucho, I don't want to leave them either, but there's no choice!" Dan yelled. The bus turned into a sea of senseless arguments, moments before Klaus put his foot down.

"Shun's right, as painful as it is for me to admit that. There's near no chance of us finding them in such a large area and even less chance that they'll be uninfected. They knew what we had to do once the infected got loose, there's very small chance that they're still alive. We need to leave, now." Klaus sat down at the wheel and started the bus, driving it out of the gates.

We drove like there was no tomorrow for a while. The decision we'd made back there was cold, but logical. Both Julio and Komba were fit enough to not only make it to the bus before we left, but to be one of the first few there. I stared out the window sickened, though, as the decision still seemed heartless.

"So, where are we heading, Klaus?" Billy asked, snapping me briefly back to attention.

"The wharf. Apparently, there's a rescue team contacting a radio there. They have a quarantined island, apparently where the rest of the refugees are heading. I know nothing else though, but it's our best bet." Klaus replied. It didn't seem so bad when he put it like that, but I still wasn't sure. I shortly after went back to staring at the outside world. So much had transpired in such a short period, changing me and my friend's lives from returning to regular teenage life to a battle for survival. I continued to linger aimlessly on these thoughts, falling asleep before I consciously decided to do so.


	10. Chapter 10 (Final Chapter)

(AN: I've noticed romance stories get a lot more feedback than other ones. While I do not believe in submitting to the crowd, I fear it's the only way to get feedback for improvement. I will try to entwine another theme into it, but I will have a shot at writing romance anyway. So this is the last chapter because I find I cannot write multiple stories at once.)

The bus reached the wharf just before dawn casted a sunrise glow across the street. I woke up to find the bus had stopped and Dan nudging my nose.

"Alright, alright, I'm awake, Dan." I said begrudgingly. I looked to my shoulder to find Alice had fallen asleep on it. Blushing, I nudged her awake. Alice looked at me with the same expression before standing up. I followed her off the bus.

"What do you mean, out of fuel?!" I heard Marucho call from outside.

"Exactly that, there's no more fuel in the tank." Klaus replied. "We're on the wharf, anyway. Apparently, the radio is on the top of the hotel skyscraper, but I cannot be too sure."

"Still, wouldn't hurt to go check it out." Dan said, eyeing the top of the skyscraper.

"Yes it would." Julie said. "There are probably zombies in the building."

"Don't worry Bakubabe. Give me something that's swingable and I'll clear out the hall." Billy said, picking up a discarded fire extinguisher.

"Billy, wait!" Julie called, trying to hold him back. Then, straight after he'd broken free, she followed him into the building. Almost as foolishly, we all followed them inside. Thankfully and oddly, there were no zombies on the ground floor.

We could hear the moaning of zombies from the floor above us. I looked towards the stairs nervously.

"The elevator is the least likely to be controlled by zombies, although it's also unlikely that it's working." Shun said, re-grasping my attention and pointing over at a huge metal box.

"The sounds will probably attract them too." Marucho added.

"So will yakking all day. C'mon, let's move!" Dan said, pressing the button for Ground Floor. Half of the group picked up some sort of debris off the floor, in case there was a zombie inside the elevator. When the doors opened, I saw 3 zombies launch themselves out of the doors. I closed my eyes and buried my face into Alice's sleeve out of fear. A few moments later, I could feel something wet running against my heel. I looked down to see blood staining my sock. Blushing with embarrassment and fear, I followed the others into the elevator. To everyone's relief, it began to rise. Our relief was short-lived, though, because it ran out of power on the 16th floor.

"Now what do we do?" Joe asked.

"Resort to cannibalism?" Billy said. There were a few moments of silence. "Oh come on, that was a good one!" I rolled my eyes and looked at the door. I pressed the open button and saw we were halfway between the 16th and 17th floors. Floor 16 was of easier access, but it was freaking overrun with zombies. Floor 17 would be less easy to get to, but there were only one or two zombies up there.

"Floor 17 is the better option, but we'll have to help each other up." Klaus said, gesturing for Marucho to get up onto his hands. Marucho slid himself onto the 17th floor, quickly followed by Shun making his own way up.

"It would be possible for someone to restart the power source, but it'd be a one way trip." Chan said, eyeing the 16th floor.

"That's too risky." Joe replied, trying to clamber up onto the 17th floor. Alice and I went up next, with Klaus helping Alice up a bit. We both pulled Julie and Billy out onto the floor. Looking back down inside the elevator, I could see zombie hands reaching for Dan and Klaus' ankles and one had figured out how to climb into the elevator. It seemed like now was a moment of truth; One of them was clearly not making it out alive. I saw Klaus toss Dan up to the floor just as the zombies overwhelmed the elevator. I dragged Dan across the floor and turned back, only to find that the wires of the elevator had given way and the elevator had gone crashing down.

I brought Dan to his feet and looked onwards; there were no zombies on this floor indeed. I looked over at the stairwell.

"I guess…we're walking the rest of the way." I said.

"Runo…I need a couple of minutes." Chan replied.

"Why? Sentiment?" Joe said.

"No…I just need to bandage up my leg. I cut it while… you know." Chan looked away from both of us, and while her leg was bleeding, I didn't think it was the only reason she needed some time.

"Billy, Julie, can you go investigate the stairwell? There're only 5 floors to the roof." I said, trying to change the subject.

"Sure." Julie said, taking Billy by the arm and handing him a support beam from the walls to use as a weapon. It didn't take long for Chan to bandage up her leg, either. We were just about to get going when we heard screams from the stairwell.

"Julie! Billy!" I yelled out, but I received no response. Quickly, I picked up one of the old secretary drawers and quietly went up the stairwell to investigate. I saw 3 zombies at the 19th floor; one unrecognisable, the other two easily recognisable as Julie and Billy, recently killed and come back. I launched the drawer at them and bolted back down the staircase, screaming.

"Runo! What's the matter?" Dan yelled as I came bolting back through the room.

"Zombies! They got Julie and Billy!" I yelled, practically as nonsense. Dan could still make sense of it, though, and ripped the fire extinguisher off the wall. As predicted, the 3 zombies came tearing into the hall, not noticing Dan lying against the entrance. I flinched as coagulated blood flew in all directions, the remains of Julie's brain. The problem was, Dan could only hit 1 zombie at a time, causing the other 2 to turn around on him.

"Hey! Over here!" I heard Chan yell over to the zombies. This gave Dan enough time to hit Billy over the head, but not the other. The other one ran straight for Chan, making a beeline for her arm. Dan threw the fire extinguisher at it, causing it to fall down. Without stopping to think, Chan used the extinguisher to beat its head into a pulp. Then she knelt beside it and threw up last night's dinner.

"Wow! That was amazing." Alice said, walking over.

"Still, that was just floor 19. The rooftop is on floor 22." I reminded the group. "Who knows what else is up that stairwell?"

"Runo has a good point. We arrived as 10 and we're down to 7. We can't risk any more teammates. From now on, no-one leaves unless they're in a group of at least 3. Got it?" Dan said.

"Yes, Dan." We all replied, deciding he also had good points.

"Right. Marucho, I want you, Chan and Joe to investigate the rest of the stairwell. Be cautious, and come back down calmly if you see anything.

"Oh please, Dan, do you know who you're talking to?" Chan said, making her way to the stairs, shortly followed by Marucho and Joe.

"So what about us?" Shun asked.

"Anything could happen. I want you to keep your eyes and ears open." Dan replied, gesturing for us to come closer to him. Alice clung to my shoulders out of fear. We moved towards the stairwell before hearing gunfire up the stairs. A feminine grunt of pain came straight afterwards, followed by the sounds of rapid footsteps coming back down the stairs. We saw Marucho jump into sight.

"Marucho, what's up there?!" Dan demanded.

"Another group reached the rescue team before us! They have firearms and they just shot Chan in the shoulder!" Marucho blurted out all at once.

"What? Another group? But how?" Alice asked.

"The same way we learned about it. How else?" Shun said, folding his arms.

"Still, we can't go back up there without a plan, or we'll be shot too!" I said, panickedly.

"We have to! Joe can't handle himself, let alone help Chan on his own!" Marucho replied.

"We need to go up peacefully though." Alice said.

"Eh, screw that! The only way we'll get through to them is brute force. Marucho, how did you approach them?"

"We didn't even see them until they open fired on us. Even then, we only caught a glimpse of grey hair."

"An old guy sniped Chan in the shoulder?" Dan said. I quickly slapped him in the back of the head.

"What was Julie, then? Chopped liver?" I said sharply.

"It's important we go back up there." Shun said. I then felt Alice's arms leave my shoulders and push past the group and up the stairs.

"Alice, wait!" I yelled, following her up the stairs. I heard Alice scream with shock when she got to the roof, although it was clear she hadn't been shot. When I got to the top of the stairwell, Chan and Joe were nowhere to be seen, but their fate wasn't difficult to deduce via the scrap of red clothing on a nail at the edge of the building. I could see why Alice was in shock. In front of us was a man in his 60's that had an appearance that was unmistakable to any of us.

"Grandfather?!" Alice cried desperately.

"Stay back…! I'll shoot, I mean it!" Michael said, cradling the gun as if it were his lifeline.

"Grandfather…what happened?" Alice said, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Why do you want to shoot your only granddaughter?"

"I plan to be the survivor of all this! The sole survivor!" Michael shook his gun, causing Alice to back up. "Now, where are the rest of your little friends so I can end all your lives at once?"

"Grandfather, please! You're better than this!" Alice begged, but I pulled her back.

"The infection's driven him insane, Alice! There's no point in reasoning with him!" I said. Alice pulled away from me, not wanting to believe what I said. She began running towards Michael and I knew what I had to do. Cause an injury to prevent death. I fell to the floor and grabbed Alice by the ankle, causing her to fall over just before the shot rang through the air. The shot sailed into a piece of window glass on the building on the other side of the road. Alice turned around to investigate a new bleeding wound on her leg.

"Please, Alice, listen to me. Your grandfather has been driven insane." I said, hearing the distinctive 'chi-chunk' of the shotgun go off, letting us know it had been reloaded. I looked up just as a fire extinguisher was launched over me and Alice's heads and into Michael's head, knocking him off balance. I turned around to see Dan smiling down at us, before frowning when his eyes fell onto Alice's leg.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yes, I'm alright, just a little hurt." Alice replied. Dan then turned to Michael.

"What do you think you're doing, shooting innocent people like that?!" He yelled as Michael stood back up.

"I'm making sure that I am the only survivor of this calamity! To make sure I'm the last human to ever exist!"

"That's crazy! There's no way you'll get away with that!" Dan tensed, ready to make a run at Michael.

"You'll stay exactly where the girls are, and tell your other friends to come out too!" Michael said and shook his shotgun again. It was difficult to argue with a man with a gun, so Dan sat down next to Alice. At that moment, Shun and Marucho emerged from the stairwell.

"Good. Now sit close so I can make this quick and painless." Michael said. We all closed our eyes as the shot was fired.

A ripple of intense pain ripped through my chest and stomach. I opened my eyes and saw several wounds in those places. I looked around weakly to see that Marucho had been instantly killed by a blow to the head, several wounds on Dan's face and upper chest and many wounds on Alice's stomach and thighs. Shun had some wounds to his lower legs, but he seemed to ignore them as he lunged at Micheal, who was now out of bullets. I could see Shun using the gun to smack Micheal upside the head, knocking him unconscious. I heard Dan's groans of pain ring through the air and Shun knelt beside him and tried to comfort him. It was obvious he wasn't going to make it; I wasn't going to make it either. Alice didn't seem likely to make it too.

"Seems odd…dying like…this." I said weakly, my body losing the fight as time went on.

"Tell me…about it. We spent the last fortnight… trying to evade being killed by zombies…" Alice replied.

"…and then… we're given wounds… by your own… grandfather. Mine are… quite obviously…fatal."

"Mine are…too…I'm quite certain…of it." Alice's words were followed by the sound of Dan's soul leaving the world.

"No…you've still got a chance…" I could feel the pain beginning to dull. This was the beginning of the end for me. "Promise me… you'll survive…Alice. Survive with Shun. You are very close as friends and I want you to live a happy, long life together."

"I…I'll try, Runo."

"One last request…if it isn't much trouble…" I said as Shun began to pull Alice up to investigate her wounds to see if they really were fatal.

"Anything, Runo. No request of yours is trouble."

"A goodbye kiss…in the library, you had the sweetest of them…I'd like to spend my last moments with one like that." Alice didn't even hesitate; she dragged me onto her lap and connected her lips with mine, exchanging a long, beautiful kiss. The pain began to dull more, as did my eyesight. I felt my lungs beginning to give way and welcome death.

"Thank you…Alice…" I said, smiling, before letting my lungs lower one last time. My last thoughts; I hope they will be safe.

_Alice's wounds were indeed fatal, but she did not die until she was aboard the rescue helicopter. Shun was distraught at the news that now all his friends were dead in addition to his mother, and shortly after the zombie apocalypse ended, he met his own demise to grief. _


End file.
